Now we know the real name of the English-speaker in those Islamic State beheading videos: Mohammed Emwazi, 27, a Kuwaiti-born British citizen raised in London. The revelation has some calling for a harder line against known radicals in Britain. Some who know Emwazi, however, say it might have been police harassment that pushed him over the edge.

The Cruz app

Ted Cruz, the rebellious GOP senator with presidential ambitions, likens himself to "a disruptive app" like Uber. So will the Cruz app revolutionize the federal government or simply burden it with endless loops and drain its batteries? Not only Democrats are asking. Cruz has alienated a fair share of his GOP colleagues. Take a closer look at a proud troublemaker from Texas.

Kamala who?

What if you run for the U.S. Senate in California and more than half of the state’s 18 million registered voters can’t pick you out of a political lineup? That’s the challenge facing Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic front-runner to succeed retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer, a USC Dornsife-L.A. Times polls finds. Republican pollster: "She’s not some huge titan." Democratic pollster: "I wouldn’t trade her starting position.”

Do water hogs get soaked?

A simple concept when water is scarce: The more you use, the higher the rate you pay. A group of San Juan Capistrano taxpayers says that's not right, and a lower court has agreed. If an appeals court follows suit, it could change how millions of Californians pay for water and deprive water districts of a widely used conservation strategy.

Bronze Age survivor meets chain saw

This bristlecone pine took root in the high Nevada desert long before Egyptians built the pyramids in Giza. The tree outlasted the Roman empire, European colonialism and other powerful forces. So why take a chain saw to it? Carolina Miranda’s story about Prometheus, the puissant pine, is your great read today.

Who hid Mack's plaque? The studio Mack Sennett built in what is now Echo Park was the birthplace of the Keystone Cops. It now has other uses, but a plaque commemorates this historic slice of L.A. So where has it been all these years? Nita Lelyveldexplains an effort to put things right.